Snickerdoodle Swirl Bread – and Building An Ark

I just sat down with a warm slice of this delicious bread. I just love sharing a recipe while it’s fresh on my tastebuds so the timing is perfect. This bread is the embodiment of comfort with a soft fluffy sweetness and the warm flavor of cinnamon sugar. I’m having it right now with a cup of coffee for an early afternoon pick me up and then I’ll be sending the rest off to friends and neighbors throughout the rest of the day. As long as I’ve been in the kitchen, it’s always been the most fun to cook for other people!

~If you want to jump straight to the recipe, scroll down. If you’ve got time and the inclination to visit a spell, keep reading~

Today my heart is aching a bit and the reason why is going to seem silly at the onset, but hang in there and it will make sense. It’s because of the announcement of the new iPhone yesterday. Apple has this big press event each year and all of this media hubbub kicks up around it as people anxiously await what the next technology will entail and what the exorbitant price point will be. Each year the phones get more complex and more expensive while the excitement always seems to escalate proportionately.

My son has always followed these press events because in his line of work he usually makes some videos reviewing the new devices or explaining how to use them. He called me yesterday and asked if I’d heard of the new features and such and I responded that I had not as of yet but I would try to read up on it sometime today. I know he likes to talk about things like that so my goal is to have a vague notion in order to keep up my side of the conversation.

As a result, I logged on to do my due diligence this morning in order to show myself approved to the men in my life and found an awful lot of people excited over the latest phones – and it hurt my heart because the last time I saw folks this excited was last year – at the last announcement event. History tells me that within one year’s time they’ll be $1000 poorer and staring with their figurative noses up against the glass waiting to be able to purchase the new exciting thing, their 365 day old phone now dull in comparison.

I’m certainly not bemoaning phones or folks who have them (until yesterday I had the latest and greatest myself) it’s just that these are temporary things. And while there are great reasons to be excited about them, these days it is a rare thing to see folks get that excited about things of a more permanent and longer lasting nature. We are conditioned to react with excitement to every shiny sparkly thing that beeps while we move further and further away from valuing the things that really matter at the end of the road.

Realizing the rapid shift of values that surround us all these days, my husband and I have worked to create a better balance in our home over the past few years. We’ve invoked more “special” family dinners, cut down on commercial holidays, started taking a full 24 hour break from the world each week, and made it a point to start and end our days with conversation. In addition to sharing hobbies and studies together, we’ve also involved our kids on many levels – and that is mostly because of them seeing our example and wanting to follow suit. The result is a drastic improvement in our quality of life. We have more peace, less stress, and a heaping helping of contentment. In a sense, what we’ve done in emphasizing and building up our home and relationships with one another is like building an ark of sorts, a safe place to rest no matter how crazy the weather gets around us.

I love to see people excited and happy and today I wanted offer up a little reminder that there are some awfully exciting things in our lives that don’t have to be recharged – but they do have to be noticed.

Spray a 9x5 loaf pan liberally with cooking spray or grease and flour it (I use cooking spray).

In a mixing bowl, place butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla (I like to add an extra teaspoon of cinnamon here as well). Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and well combined. Add flour and milk and mix again until blended, about one minute.

Remove ½ cup of batter to a small bowl. To this, stir in 1 teaspoon cinnamon and ½ teaspoon allspice. Set aside.

Pour half of remaining batter into loaf pan. Use a spoon to drop ½ cinnamon batter randomly over the top. Swirl lightly with a butter knife.

Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Allow to cool for ten minutes and then turn out onto platter or towel lined countertop for topping.

Melt ¼ cup butter. In separate small bowl, stir together brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cinnamon from topping ingredients. Brush top of bread generously with all of the butter. Sprinkle generously with brown sugar & cinnamon mixture. Serve warm or allow to cool.

Notes

*The last couple of times I've made this I've started adding an additional 1 teaspoon of cinnamon into the batter along with the butter and sugar. It makes it even better!

Research is showing that a large number of people are lonly and the number is growing. If people disconnected from media and tech and connected wirh each other more it would improve the isolation they feel. Your families plan is a good one easy to do and benificial.

That is so true and it breaks my heart. I see so many people who are isolated among a crowd of folks but a lot of people don’t realize it because they have so many “friends” on facebook, they don’t recognize the loneliness from lack of deep connections. Just hurts my heart. Thank you for being here, Blanche.

Thanks so much for sharing. I have been working to remember that I am living the dream! You know the one some of us had: to grow up, fall in love, get married and have children?! On the hard days I remind myself God has blessed me with my dream come true and I need to enjoy it. I need to truly connect with my loved ones. I think tonight would be a good night to surprise my 22 year old son with this bread when he gets home from work. Thanks for sharing your heart with us and reminding us what truly matters.

Love, love, love this!!
Christy, you are able to express so beautifully what is on many of our hearts and minds! Thank you for this timely reminder to intentionally “unplug” and take notice of who and what is really important and valuable. Blessings to you and your precious ones.

Thanks so much for the lesson AND the bread, Christy! I love what you share about your family and it warms my heart that y’all are so close. My husband and I love cinnamon so I need to make this, stat! 🙂

Christy,
Your timing is just perfect. We’ve been making a lot of changes in our families activities the past few years. Changing employment situations so that could work the same schedule, be home together. Took a big cut in pay to do it. I work in Tech and I appreciate a good techie tool and phone. I lost some “cred” with a younger coworker earlier this week. “What do you think of the new iphone features? When are you getting yours? ” I then admitted I hadn’t even watched the big announcements this year. I have an iphone. I’m content. It works. It’s paid for. Your insights are a breath of fresh air. Thanks for sharing!

Ha… I got into a ‘facebook’ conversation regarding a posting from HGTV about the “holiday” that is Halloween. I casually mentioned that instead of spending so much time and effort prepping and decorating for this made up holiday – why not do something with long lasting effects – like buy a pair of shoes for a needy child, etc… Talk about backlash. I’m a “Scrooge” for not celebrating this holiday. I was accused of being a kill joy, etc… I casually responded those were all noteworthy responses, but I stood by my expression of beliefs about over-doing ‘holidays’ just like the critics stood by their opinions. Mind-blowing. People: life is too short to ‘doodle’ it away on nothingness.

I personally love Halloween just a good fun holiday if you choose to make it that way. There’s no reason you can’t enjoy Halloween and do the things Becky mentioned as well…..I don’t see it as an either or situation. I personally can’t stand Facebook because of the hoopla Becky described….people get so worked up and irritated with each other ….it’s too stressful for me. Believe it or not I don’t even have a Facebook account and I don’t subscribe to the theory that ‘it’s such a good way to keep up with people’…..maybe, but a lot of what people post is a bunch of phony baloney, look how wonderful my life is….not what is really going on their lives. I find it drains my energy and time when I have peeped into Facebook via my husband’s account. Besides, if someone really wants to contact me they can….*gasp* , actually pick up their fancy smart phone and call or text me. Have a ‘real’ connection like Christy talks about.

Although I personally don’t do Halloween anymore, I completely agree with your view as well. 🙂 Thanks for being here and chiming in. Y’all are a nice reminder of the “real” folks in the world who are good hearted, respectful, and kind without prerequisites.